World Wildlife Day! Fashwand’s World Wildlife Day Webinar, Meet Dr. Dorceta Taylor

WORLD WILDLIFE DAY!

People everywhere rely on wildlife and biodiversity-based resources to meet all our needs, from food, to fuel, medicines, housing, and clothing. Millions of people rely on nature as the source of their livelihoods and economic opportunities. But more than our needs, nature has proven to be essential for our mental health too. Recognizing the need to remind people of that fact is why the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) proclaimed 3 March – as World Wildlife day back on 20 December 2013.

March 3rd was intentionally chosen to coincide with the 1973 signing of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was signed. On the UN calendar, World Wildlife Day has now become the most important global annual event dedicated to wildlife. This year, the theme is “Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation”. It will allow us to celebrate all conservation efforts, from intergovernmental to local scale. Within this theme, the day has a focus on two sub-topics:

• Marine life & oceans – with around 70% of our planet being covered by water, the impact of marine conservation is incredibly important
  

• Business & finance – globally, conservation efforts need to be funded and this work needs to be done in collaboration with business – an area that, in the past, has been seen as exploitative and unsustainable. Successful partnerships for conservation must find ways of including business if we are to reverse the loss in biodiversity.

Why does World Wildlife Day matter to us?  to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants. Today, it’s about the theme. The theme ‘Partnerships for Wildlife Conservation’ will provide the opportunity to highlight the people who are making a difference as well as to celebrate the bridge that CITES has been for these partnerships to form, making a significant contribution to sustainability, wildlife and biodiversity conservation.

DEEPER DIVE: CITES, World Wildlife Day

FASHWAND’S WORLD WILDLIFE DAY WEBINAR, MARCH 4TH

Like Jeffrey said, today, March 3 is World Wildlife Day. March 3rd is also the birthday of the signing of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) back in 1973. In fact this is the 50th anniversary of CITES. World Wildlife Day began in 2013, so this is its 10th anniversary. So to celebrate both the 10th and 50th, FashWand is hosting a virtual panel titled: How to Save Wildlife from Extinction through Strategic Partnerships, tomorrow March 4th from 11A to 12:30P Los Angeles Time (PST).

Click on the link in the Deeper Dive section of this story at theclimate.org/episodes to register today! FashWand was founded in 2016 by designer Azi. Its mission is not only to create beautiful exclusive fashion, but also to help protect wildlife and lead the luxury fashion industry towards a sustainable future. This webinar will allow us to listen to insights from leaders, experts, and change-makers across the field of conservation, inspires us and discover ways that you can help save wildlife from extinction through strategic partnerships.

FashWand’s featured Panel Members and Guest speakers include Ralph Chami Assistant Director “International Monetary Fund”, Dune Ives Chief Executive Officer of “Movements that Matter” and Founding Chief Executive Officer of “Lonely Whale”, Alice Pasqualato Policy Officer “The Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime”, Mike Veale President of “Global Conservation Force”, Karen Wood Senior Director, Global Policy of “PANTHERA”, JD Bergeron, Chief Executive Officer “International Bird Rescue”, and Azi Sharif Chief Executive Officer 

Why does “FashWand”’s webinar matter to us? It’ll be discussing and exploring innovative ways that partnerships can be leveraged to bring up new solutions that can result in transformational changes to protect Wildlife.

DEEPER DIVE: FasWand Webinar, CITES, World Wildlife Day

MEET DR. DORCETA TAYLOR

Meet Dr. Dorceta E. Taylor. She’s an environmental sociologist known for her work on both environmental justice and racism in the environmental movement. She is the Senior Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Yale School of the Environment, as well as a Professor of Environmental Justice. Her research has ranged over environmental history, environmental justice, environmental policy, leisure and recreation, gender and development, urban affairs, race relations, collective action and social movements, green jobs, diversity in the environmental field, food insecurity, and urban agriculture. 

Taylor’s career back in 1991 when she received a National Science Foundation Minority Post-doctoral Fellowship to study ethnic minority environmental activism in Britain. In 1992 she obtained a Ford Foundation/Rockefeller Foundation Poverty and the Underclass Post-doctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan. Why does Doreceta Taylor matter to us? Her scholarship.

Her 2009 book, The Environment and the People in American Cities: 1600s-1900s, was the first history of environmental injustice in America. In 2010, she won the Allan Schnaiberg Outstanding Publication Award for it. Her 2014 book Toxic Communities has been hailed as a “standard-bearer” for environmental justice scholarship. Her book, The Rise of the American Conservation Movement is a “sweeping social history” that challenges narrative of environmental history and inspires readers to “reconsider nearly everything.” In 2015, Taylor became the James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Professor of Environmental Justice and the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS). 

In 2018, she was awarded the Women in Conservation Rachel Carson Award from the National Audubon Society; the Freudenburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Environmental Science and Studies; the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics & Engineering, Mentoring;  the University of Michigan Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, and the President’s Award from the Detroit Audubon Society. 

And the city of San Francisco celebrated Dorceta Taylor as one of 29 black environmentalists who have made “real and lasting change.” 

DEEPER DIVE: Yale, Wikipedia, Duke University Press